Slumdog Millionaire


Q and A was brilliantly written by Indian author, Vikas Swarup. The ingenuity of Swarup in naming the protagonist, “Ram Mohammed Thomas” and his story of Rags to Riches has totally amazed me. So when I got to seeing the much acclaimed and talked about movie Slumdog Millionaire, I decided to post my views on it out here.

Why do Indian movies never really make much sense to most sane people? With the exception of ‘Salaam Bombay’, very few movies, I think, have been able to project the lurid and extreme social realism in India as was done in Slumdog. A certain Karan Johar or a Yash Chopra seems to, more often than not, wants to please not just the Punjabi audience but the Tamilian, Telegu and Mallu audience, the Bengali and the Bihari audience and ALSO win the Oscar for it!! No offences meant. I admit I myself have loved these regular ‘masala’ movies like OSO and Rab Ne… where everything is all hunky dory as the curtain drops. But the ‘famous’ Bollywood should have churned out such stuff instead.

For those of us thoroughly disgusted with Indian Cinema, (others might read on as well), here's something to consider. According to the grapevine, Sanjay Leela Bansali had tried to attain the rights of the book as well. So what if he had actually got them? What if he had made the movie instead of the Irish-English director Danny Boyle?

Ok, so Bansali’s not our regular frivolous director who would fling in an item song (maybe on the pretext of prostitution in Mumbai) for the heck of it. I only wonder what colour he would choose this time? Blue? Well we may never know!

Another bit of juicy gossip for the ignorant out here. Danny Boyle’s first choice for host of the show was Shah Rukh Khan, but he apparently couldn’t get through to him due to the many layers of people he had to get through! (Yes. You’ve guessed right! I do NOT like SRK!)

OK. I think we’ve discussed enough of gossip and hot-talk. Let’s all get back to our senses and not jump about in joy because Slumdog won the Golden Globe. It is NOT an Indian movie. Instead let us hope and pray that the talented A.R Rahman does enough magic at the Oscars too! (although honestly I didn't think the music completly justified the accolades it received).Let us also hope that the next movie released will make more sense to sane people than Rab Ne… did!

Comments

Sharanya said…
I absolutely agree. It's not an Indian film, which, if you think about it, is why it won. But I agree on the A.R Rahman bit.

Everything said and done, I still want to see it. Glad to have you back, anyway :)
16 January 2009 at 07:41
Ephemera said…
slumdog is the worst croc of shit i have seen in a long time..its a western man's perspective of condescension of India..

Of course there are a lot of plagues in our country but the movie does not have a critical and humanitarian take on them!
If it did then the film would not have ended in a silly dance on railway platform..a western man's view of India..how can a film on India do without Bollywood-ish tom foolery

This is a pedestrian film which is getting a lot of attention for no major reason. One might speculate that the west is trying to show Idia her place..but i would not look at it that way. its plainly a silly film with an innovative plot.
16 January 2009 at 08:23
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